‘DISTURBED’ BY VATICAN SILENCING
The Association of Catholic Priests has accused the Vatican of trying to silence its founding member Fr Tony Flannery and warned the move will exacerbate the perceived “disconnect” between the Irish Church and Rome.
In a statement, three other leaders of the 800-strong association, Fr Brendan Hoban, Fr Sean McDonagh, and Fr PJ Madden, said they were disturbed by the fact that Fr Flannery was being silenced.
It emerged last weekthat the priest’s monthly column with Reality, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine, had been discontinued on the orders of the Vatican.
The magazine’s editor, Fr Gerard Moloney, is also banned from writing on certain, controversial issues.
“We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland,” the three priests said in their statement.
“We affirm in the strongest possible terms our confidence in and solidarity with Fr Flannery and we wish to make clear our profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise.”
Fr Flannery has espoused what are perceived in Rome to be liberal views on contraception, celibacy, and female priests.
“The issues surfaced by the [Association of Catholic Priests] since its foundation less than two years ago and by Tony Flannery as part of the leadership team are not an attack on or a rejection of the fundamental teachings of the Church,” the statement continued.
“Rather they are an important reflection by an association of over 800 Irish priests — who have given long service to the Catholic Church in Ireland — on issues surfacing in parishes all over the country.”
They said some “reactionary fringe groups” had contrived to portray the association as a “small coterie of radical priests with a radical agenda”.
“We have protested vehemently against that unfair depiction.
“We are and we wish to remain at the very heart of the Church, committed to putting into place the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.”
They said they wished to register their “extreme unease and disquiet at the present development, not least the secrecy surrounding such interventions and the questions about due process and freedom of conscience that such interventions surface”.
“At this critical juncture in our history, the [association] believes that this form of intervention — what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently called ‘heresy hunting’ — is of no service to the Irish Catholic Church and may have the unintended effect of exacerbating a growing perception of a significant ‘disconnect’ between the Irish Church and Rome.”
A new report says: there is no major difference in teaching quality between large and small schools
IN IRELAND
There are no major differences in the quality of teaching delivered at large and small schools in Ireland, according to a new report commissioned by the Government.
The investigation based on parent and pupil questionnaires and school inspections found small variations between schools of different sizes, but not to a statistically significant level.
It found that English lessons were rated as marginally better in larger schools, but there was no significant difference in the quality of maths teaching.
Meanwhile, parents of children in larger schools were found to have marginally more positive views on the quality of teaching on offer.
Education minister Ruairí Quinn welcomed the document, saying it would feed in to his Department’s assessment of which schools offered the best value for money. He said:
The report shows that while there are, in some cases, differences between small schools and larger schools, in respect of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, these differences are not directly associated with the size of the school.
He said small schools would continue to be a “major feature of our education landscape”, adding: “I recognise that small schools are an important part of the social fabric of rural communities.”
The report click here for (full pdf) divided schools into two groups – those with 49 pupils or less, and those with 50 pupils or more.
Galway runner’s daughter Jaimie sets new 'North Pole record'
An Irish endurance runner who travelled the globe running seven marathons in five days has secured another record – his daughter Jaimie (ABOVE RIGHT) has become the youngest person at the North Pole.
Richard Donovan flew eight-year-old Jaimie to brave temperatures of -26C and mark the 10th anniversary of a marathon he organises inside the Arctic.
The youngster has broken a record – by one day – set by the daughter of British adventurer David Hempleman-Adams, Alicia in 1998.
“It was cold and the helicopter was noisy,” Jaimie said after arriving back on dry land. “I loved the North Pole and I want to go back.”
Jaimie and her teddy bear were standing on the ice at 5.30am (GMT) on Sunday.
Donovan, who earlier this year created a new record of seven marathons on seven continents in less than five days, said his daughter took the experience in her stride.
“I decided to bring Jaimie and my wife Caroline this year as it was the 10th year of the race and they were long overdue a trip to see what I’ve been working hard to achieve for the last decade,” he said.
“It was a simple coincidence that she seems to be the youngest to stand up there. I was just proud of her very good behaviour and the fact she took the trip in her stride at her age, embracing the adventure.”
According to Guinness World Records, Alicia Hempleman-Adams, born on November 8 1989, stood at the geographic North Pole aged eight years and 173 days on May 1 1998. She had also flown to the Pole to meet her father.
Based on the same calculations, Mr Donovan’s daughter, born on October 17 2003, beat the record by one day. The Donovan family will have to apply to Guinness World Records to have the feat verified.
No end to the excesses of Ireland’s public sector,
Judging by today’s report on local authority salaries.
Despite calls to cut the number of lucrative senior posts in Ireland’s city and county councils, the gravy train rolls on and no change in the “Status Quo”.
Beleaguered taxpayers, suffering under the austerity regime, are forking out €1m a year to nearly every council in Ireland to underpin high salaries for senior civil servants. Despite emergency pay cuts, the highest earners remain protected. This makes a mockery of efforts to bring the public sector into line. It is also further proof, if it were needed, that the Croke Park deal has created a cosseted elite. Though an exodus of personnel was seen in the retirement scheme, most councils remain top heavy with senior staff who earn over €100,000 a year.
Scrutinising the salaries of directors of services, the highest paid positions after county managers, the report found that, from a starting point of €90,453, their pay jumps by annual increments of €4,000 up to €107,000 a year. At present, a litany of local authorities — including Kerry, Galway, Donegal, Wicklow, Kildare, Carlow, Cork, and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown — have five or more service directors, while most other councils have three or four. South Dublin has eight service directors while Cork has 10.
Surely it is not an essential precondition of local authority service that councils should employ so many highly paid people. It is the result of organisations being given fat pay deals by successive governments.
An official report on improving local government efficiency is either gathering dust on a ministerial shelf or being ignored. Among other measures, it sought a minimum cut of 20% in the number of service directors, plus a 15% reduction at senior executive level and similar cuts among engineers at senior, executive, and assistant level.
There are also widespread anomalies in pay levels. For example, the salaries of county librarians peak at €84,036 but the ceiling for Dublin city librarian is €106,900, while Sligo’s chief librarian gets €86,573. Curiously, the post of veterinary inspector reveals glaring inconsistencies. Inexplicably, South Tipperary has four veterinary inspectors, earning from €60,555 to €94,393, whereas most local authorities, including North Tipperary, have only one.
Against this bewildering backdrop, the suggestion that Ireland needs only four county councils has a lot going for it. A proposal that warrants serious consideration, it envisages having one council for Dublin, another for Munster, a third for Leinster, and the fourth would be Connacht/Ulster.
No country, especially one with a broken economy, can afford to carry a system riddled with inefficiencies and where highly paid jobs are replicated at enormous cost. There is a compelling case for local authorities to introduce joint administrative areas across neighbouring counties, greater efficiency in procurement, better financial management, more use of shared services, annual reporting to the Oireachtas, and more realistic pay levels.
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